Tuesday, April 24, 2012

hmm well, the google has done something, guess this is new and "improved' Personally i don't like it. Got to find a way to get back to the old template or whatever it was called.
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anyhoo here is a pic of the Battle Board i made for playing MA. It is 2'x2' and has discrete quadrants marked on it, as well as the standard 6" out deployment zones.

Particularly crappy pictures of my first game using the Pirates black powder rules.
I don't have any proper pirate minis YET, but do have some Battle Honors ACW from a stalled out project that may never see completion. The odds of it not being completed raised dramatically once enough slouch hats were sorted out to make up this force. First i would like to say the Battle Honors ACW that I have are CRAPPY. Some of them look like they had a fuzzy primer job, even before any primer was applied. Some of them have holes in their backs at the belt line. None scream "paint me" "paint me"
The last few things I have painted up have been from Splintered Light,(which are fabulous) so it was a chore. However I wanted to play with the new rules, and this was what was on hand. Lesson Learned no more Battle Honors for me. I was surprised at the lack of quality and good poses since I had read great reviews of the BA ACW from people who should know.

enough of that rant and on to the game.
The back story for this army is that a dimensional rift allowed a bunch of Oranj Mountain HobGoblins to come to 1800's USA. They ran amok, till a County Militia put them down, then entered the rift themselves to put a stop to the HobGoblin's nonsense. In this battle the HobGoblins were handed a swift defeat despite killing the County Militia's commander in turn 3. I certainly didn't help that the HobGoblins rolled a 2 for Movement points in all but one turn of the 4 turn game.

Note the smoke markers: they were made by cutting a piece of floor "tile" smearing an irregular line of adhesive smashing a cotton ball on it then pulling most of the cotton ball off.

In the end the Veteran County Militia Cavalry saved the day routing the final unit necessary to win off the board. Thats what happens when you barely make it off your base line.

Sorry for the crappy pics, I'll try to stage some better images another time.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Black Sea Pirates is the latest expansion to the popular Mighty Armies game from Rebel Minis. http://rebelminis.com This expansion allows you to incorporate Pirates and Pirate Hunters into your existing MA setting. It also includes 3 scenarios, and a campaign.
You will need the MA rule book in order to use The Black Sea Pirates.
The first 7 1/2 pages are devoted to setting fluff, and some Pirate/Pirate Hunter lists. This part is very flavorful, and puts all the combatants into the Zatariel setting.
Next 3 pages list new ABILITIES and SPELLS. New Abilities include "Gunpowder Smoke" and "Rifled Weapons" along with others. The Spells, as well as the Abilities, have nautical themes. Some are variations on MA versions, but none of them appear to be game breakers.
Finally 5 pages are given to the scenarios and campaign. I have yet to use the campaign system that is in MA, but it looks very promising. The Black Sea Pirates adds another strategic location to the mix, Ruins.

Overall, i'm pleased with what's in The Black Sea Pirates. It definitely adds to Mighty Armies. Hopefully Mike will get the rest of units into his catalog. His blog mentioned them so they're in the pipe.
I have a couple questions about some of the Spells and Abilities, but plan to ask them at the MA forum. http://mightyarmies.com/

GPT and i got in 5 games of Mighty Armies a few days back, great time. Each game came down to one unit either way would have changed the outcome. Except for the game where GPT rolled a 1 or 2 for MPs every turn, ouch.
Anyhoo we had a discussion over certain moves that were available if you happen to be in the right spot, and rolled a high number of MPs allowing you to move stands individually instead of groups.
So it started out mor or less like this. The HobGoblins (top) have the initiative and roll a 6 for MPs.
Can they move their stands as such to not frontally engage the bear, only allowing it to support.
Who could blame those shifty Hobgoblins from wanting to try that. However we felt that was not really in the spirit of the game, so they moved this way instead.
The squirrels lost an archer stand on the left to shooting. This will be linked to over at the MA forum http://www.mightyarmiesonline.info/

Monday, April 02, 2012

Here you go, Oranj Mountain Mighty HobGoblin Army phase I is complete with the splintered light Goblin BatRiders.
2 were based on a monster base for an added option.
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in action vs squirrels

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Joining in on the Mighty Army craze, http://rebelminis.com/mightyarmies.html , first out of the block is the splintered light Goblin Bat Clan Boxed Set called hobgoblins in Mighty Armies since they are scaled to the splintered lands woodland creatures. These are all foot, the Bat Riders putty is still setting up, they will be next. Also at some point there will be images from the Songs of game I put on at Cold Wars, as well as things painted.
General and Shaman stands
4 Stands of Warriors
2 stands of Scouts
3 stands of Archers

Figures

1 leader

1 hero

1 shaman

1 standard

3 bat clan assassins

2 werebats

3 archers

8 warriors/spears

I chose to incorporate the 3 wear bats into Command, Shaman and a Scout stand. more later thanks